


Pastrami On Rye

by bep_bop



Series: Newsies Oneshots (Mostly Ralbert) [14]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Feelings, Henry is straight, Light Angst, Rain, henry is also sad, henry-centric story, light fluff, sorry henry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:34:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28343238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bep_bop/pseuds/bep_bop
Summary: Henry is done with being the butt of all cishet jokes in his friend group. (Granted he is cishet)
Relationships: Albert DaSilva/Racetrack Higgins, Romeo/Specs (Newsies), Smalls/Sniper (Newsies), Spot Conlon/Elmer
Series: Newsies Oneshots (Mostly Ralbert) [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982263
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Pastrami On Rye

Being the token cishet friend is never fun. Henry should know. He's that friend.

It's not like he's unsupportive, he's very supportive of them all, don't get me wrong. He's just, lonely. Most of the time, their conversations consist if everyone ranting about how gay they are or how binders suck. Henry just doesn't have that.

Sure, he could mention a cute girl he saw in class, but that would only end in teasing. It's harmless, but it starts to hurt over time. So Henry's learned to shut his mouth and just listen.

(Not to mention he's no Jack Kelly or Racetrack Higgins, so he's not really relevant at school anyways)

Usually, he could rant to Smalls, his best friend, but recently, they got a girlfriend and they haven't had much time for Henry. Now he just sits at lunch, quiet, barely paying attention to what's going on.

It's not like anybody even noticed. Smalls would normally notice, but they're hanging out with their girlfriend Sniper, at a different table.

Though, because he wasn't speaking to anybody, he did notice things a lot. The way Romeo constantly stole glances at Specs, the way Race and Albert lovingly stole glances into each other's eyes and how Spot and Elmer would constantly whisper to each other while quickly flicking their eyes to Race and Albert. By the end of the week, Henry came to three conclusions.

1) Romeo and Specs are absolute idiots

2) Race and Albert clearly started dating and told no one

3) Spot and Elmer are either conspiring about Race and Albert or they're jealous of the two

Okay, that's four conclusions but he counts the last two as one because they both deal with Race, Albert, Elmer, Spot and their relationships. He was also dying to just tell Romeo to ask Specs out because they're both oh so clearly pining for each other.

Now when the new kids Davey and Sarah showed up, Henry instantly noticed how Jack and Kath looked at them. Jack was constantly checking Davey out and Katherine always had a light blush on her cheeks when Sarah was around. That could also just be makeup, he's not too sure.

Henry could see all the mutual pining in his group that nobody else did. He felt so left out. He considered slowly distancing himself even more, but the though of that made him feel even worse because he knew nobody would notice.

Romeo claims he's the master of romance because he can see things right before they start. But Henry sees things long before anything happens, he just doesn't say anything. The token straight friend doesn't get a say in LGBTQ+ romance. Not in Henry's case.

It's all harmless banter, or it's supposed to be, but they all told Henry that he doesn't get a say in their love lives because he's straight, and that kind of pisses him off. What kind of friends don't let you give love advice because you're straight?

At home, Henry broke multiple pencils whilst doing homework because he was just so pissed off. He couldn't stop thinking about how shitty his friends were. Yeah it's okay to make token straight friend jokes, but to take them to this extent? Really shitty of them.

Out of pure frustration, he left the giant group chat with all of them and threw his phone onto his bed. He thought about skipping school but quickly vetoed. He'd get in trouble if he did. Though, then he wouldn't be allowed to hang out and he won't be offended every five minutes by a stupid joke. But it's just a joke, he shouldn't be getting offended. But these jokes have been going on for a long time...

He slept on it and decided in the morning.

When he woke up, he had made up his mind. He was going to skip school. There is no way he was going to go to school and spend another second as the background character. He was _done_. He decided he was going to finally get his main character moment.

That's just what happened. He was walking around the streets on that overcast day when it started raining. He felt so _powerful_. He finally got to get a taste of what Jack feels everyday.

He felt like he could just just spin around and yell into nothing, he felt the world melt away as he finally got to be what he always longed to be. He finally let it all loose and sprinted down the sidewalk yelling, "Fuck you Jack!"

For the rest of the day, he wandered around in the rain in pure bliss. Sure, tomorrow might come and change everything, but right now was Henry's time to shine. It was his time to be in the spotlight.


End file.
